It is a Click Beetle, from the family Elateridae. These beetles have a mechanism at the joint between the thorax and abdomen, that snaps the joint sharply, making a click, and firing the beetle off the ground. If you hold the beetle between finger and thumb, you will feel it click and it may well succeed in escaping from your grasp. Here is a species very similar to yours, from the genus Conoderus. This one I found in Morwell National Park, here in Australia.

We have a similar bug here called a "fire bug" that has two "headlights" that light up like lightening bugs when they are disturbed. Their eggs glow in the dark and the larvae and adults eat aphids. They also "click" when touched.

I can see a thriving business in these glow in the dark aphid killers... better than ladybugs. We have click beetles here in the desert too. The kids like to tip them over to watch them 'click' themselves right side up. tee heee